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Articles 1981 - 2010 of 4911
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
A Modified Ten-Square, Jeff Grant
A Modified Ten-Square, Jeff Grant
Word Ways
More than ten years have passed since "In Search of the Ten-Square" appeared in the November 1990 Word Ways. The ASTRALISED square presented in the article was the culmination of almost twenty years of work on large squares. The main weakness of the ASTRALISED square is the term ROLY NADERS, because there is no published record of Roly Nader anywhere, and besides, there seems to be just one Roland Nader, who is only occasionally called Roly.
A New Approach To The Ten-Square, A. Ross Eckler
A New Approach To The Ten-Square, A. Ross Eckler
Word Ways
Ever since Chris Long's mathematical model in the February 1993 Word Ways showing that it takes a list of at least 250,000 ten-letter words to have a reasonable chance of forming a ten-square, logologists have despaired of forming one from dictionary-sanctioned words. Only by extending the definition of an acceptable "word" does a ten-square seem possible. One way to accomplish this is to allow words from any language (a polyglot square); another is to allow proper or personal names. This article suggests how the latter approach might be realized by reducing the construction of a ten-square to relatively simple independent …
Symmetrical Letter Patterns, Susan Thorpe
Symmetrical Letter Patterns, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
We take for granted the symmetrical letter patterns in palindromes - such as LEVEL and KAY AK. These involve all the letters in the world. But what about symmetrical letter patterns which occur in non-palindromic words, such as that of the letter N in ENCHANTMENT? In Making the Alphabet Dance, Ross Eckler gave the name 'cadence' to a set of identical letters spaced at equal intervals in a word - as in SYNGENESIOTRANSPLANTATION. Her, I add two constraints: the letters must be symmetrical within the word, as well as in relation to each other.
A Scrabble-Tile Poem, Michael Keith
A Scrabble-Tile Poem, Michael Keith
Word Ways
Each tercet (three lines of iambic pentameter with ABA rhyme-scheme) in the poem below is formed from the set of 100 Scrabble tiles.
Annihilating An Anacyclic, Bill A. O'Connor
Annihilating An Anacyclic, Bill A. O'Connor
Word Ways
Like everything else (except space-time, sentience, and energy), letter-unit palindromes more than one word long are susceptible of being broken down into their component elements. This is accomplished in accordance with an invariable rule. Let us take as our analysandum A MAN A PLAN A CANAL PANAMA.
Mad Dashes, Richard Lederer
Mad Dashes, Richard Lederer
Word Ways
The other day I came across one of those loopy hyphenations that one occasionally finds in newspapers and magazines.
"Is That A Pun In Your Pocket, Or...?", Don Hauptman
"Is That A Pun In Your Pocket, Or...?", Don Hauptman
Word Ways
To publicize my two wordplay books, which were published in the early 1960s, I prepared a talk that I delivered in such exotic places as Paris and Jersey City. (Really!)
The State Capitals Revisited, Darryl Francis
The State Capitals Revisited, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
In my November 2001 Word Ways article, "Transposing the State Capitals", I explored the transposability of the names of the 50 state capitals. In that article, I offered transposals for 20 of the names of the state capitals, leaving readers to explore the remaining 30.
Word Repetition In Danish: "Jeg Mener 'Saeg' Ikke 'Skaeg'" (I Mean 'Funny' Not 'Beard'), Joshua Nash
Word Repetition In Danish: "Jeg Mener 'Saeg' Ikke 'Skaeg'" (I Mean 'Funny' Not 'Beard'), Joshua Nash
Word Ways
A notable feature of language is the use of the same word to communicate different meanings. The first example that comes to mind in English is still. I am aware of at least three meanings (1) when something is motionless or at rest, (2) apparatus used to distill alcohol, and (3) the adverb still which means 'as yet' or 'up to this time' (for example, 'are you still there?').
Junk Palindrome Email, David B. Woodside
Junk Palindrome Email, David B. Woodside
Word Ways
Email is pervasive and mostly worthless. People do try to spruce up their emails, which is part of the reason they're mostly worthless. I've done my part by incorporating wordplay into the emails I originate. In my email template I've placed a new field under the Subject field, labeled Palindrome-of-the-Week. Every Monday morning over coffee, I update the form with a new, original palindrome, and transfer the old palindrome to page two where it tops the list of the past two years' worth of Palindromes of the Week. Here is a sample of my output.
The Symbols Of The Chemical Elements, Darryl Francis
The Symbols Of The Chemical Elements, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
The names of the chemical elements have received a certain amount of attention in Word Ways over the years. The very first issue of Word Ways in February 1968 presented a quiz on 20 transposed element names. Later article have offered more extensive transpositions, transadditions, old names for some of the elements, elements in US placenames, and words composed solely of the element symbols, such as CoAgULaTe.
Permed Ends, Susan Thorpe
Permed Ends, Susan Thorpe
Word Ways
The readers of Word Ways will be familiar with words whose first few letters are repeated, in the same order, at the end of the word. John Ferguson of Maryland called these Heads 'n Trails (Feb 1970, p 48). Example of the genre include ICELANDIC, TORMENTOR, OUTSHOUTS, and UNDERGROUNDER. By way of contrast, the first few letters might be repeated at the end of the word in reverse order, as in DETONATED and SELAGINELLALES (dfpf). The current investigation explores a third way in which the letters at the beginning of a word are repeated at the end of the word, …
Vowel Cascades, Vowel Movements And Di-Odes
Vowel Cascades, Vowel Movements And Di-Odes
Word Ways
In the February 1998 Word Ways, Richard Lederer used the term "vowel movements" to describe those rather musical sets of five words identical but for one letter which runs the gamut of the vowels. These were first introduced to Word Ways by Dmitri Borgmann in August 1968, who cited last lest list lost lust and asked readers to find a word set allowing the letter Y to be included as well. This was accomplished by Darryl Francis in August 1975 with math meth mith moth muth myth, to which several readers added other examples such as Dane dene dine done …
Nurses Run, John E. Connett
Kickshaws, David Morice
Complementary Letters And Words, Rex Gooch
Complementary Letters And Words, Rex Gooch
Word Ways
In "Complementary Letters" in the November 2001 Word Ways, Anil defines complementary letters as those whose ordinal places in the alphabet add to 27, e.g., A and Z, or L and O. He asks for words and phrases composed solely of such pairs, giving EVOLVE as an example, and asking whether LOVERISH is a word (I cannot find it). Such words must be even length, say 2n, and have n pairs of letters. My findings are presented below. As can be seen, such words are scarce. An asterisk denotes words that have this property in extremis: every one of the …
Bananagrams 16, Edmund Conti
Bananagrams 16, Edmund Conti
Word Ways
Bananagrams--anagrams to drive you bananas--consist of rhymed couplets, each one containing a pair of anagrams to be solved. One of the rhyming words will always be an anagram, and the couplet itself will offer clues to help solve the anagram. All of the bananagrams in this article are related to birds, and have been borrowed from Bill Webster's book One Wordy Guy.
Ma, Is A Fool As Aloof As I Am?, Bruce Young
Ma, Is A Fool As Aloof As I Am?, Bruce Young
Word Ways
A variant of the well-known Ma is a nun, as I am and Ma is a selfless as I am, this palindrome appears to be new.
Answers And Solutions
Word Ways
Answers and solutions to the puzzles and games contained in this issue.
Permutations Of United States Capitals, Rex Gooch
Permutations Of United States Capitals, Rex Gooch
Word Ways
This article was prompted by Darryl Francis's article "Transposing the State Capital" in the November 2001 Word Ways. My apologies to Darryl for treading on his tail, but he lit upon a real challenge. I simply report what I found, but where Darryl has found other permutations (transpositions), I note those so that readers have one combined source. (He used sources other than those quoted below.) In addition, I include a number of plurals unearthed by Susan Thorpe.
The Oz Contradictionary: Part 4
The Oz Contradictionary: Part 4
Word Ways
This is an excerpt from a 98-page book privately published in 1999 by a retired Australian (Oz) biologist, up/dn, a dictionary and contradictionary of wordplay including anagrams, palindromes and charades (see February 2001 Word Ways for details).
A 15-By-15 Transposition Square, Luc Kumps
Jailhouse Businesswoman Discourages Gregarious Darrelhousing, Darryl Francis
Jailhouse Businesswoman Discourages Gregarious Darrelhousing, Darryl Francis
Word Ways
This brief article has its origins in the late 1960s, but has been inspired by more recent work in the last two or three years. Howard Bergerson, the then editor of Word Ways, wrote me in July 1969 asking if I could help fill any of the gaps in the list of words sent him by Ross Eckler, a list of words using the vowels AEIOU in the 120 different orders possible. Along with Dmitri Borgmann, I modestly filled a few gaps. The extended list eventually found its way into print as Ross Eckler's article "Unsociable Housemaid Discourages Facetious Behaviour" …
Dynamaic Trios, Richard Lederer
Dynamaic Trios, Richard Lederer
Word Ways
The number three holds great power and fascination for us. We think about time as past, present and future. We divide our days into morning, noon, and night and our meals into breakfast, lunch and dinner. The human race is made up of men, women and children, and the English language evolved from Old English to Middle English to Modern English.
All Roads Lead From Shakespeare, Michael Keith
All Roads Lead From Shakespeare, Michael Keith
Word Ways
Sonnet number 60 by William Shakespeare runs as follows.
More Middle Names, Jeff Grant, Pat Grant
More Middle Names, Jeff Grant, Pat Grant
Word Ways
Inspired by Bill Webster's list of nearly 100 centrally imbedded personal names in the August 2001 Word Ways, we decided to search for more examples.
Bananagrams 15, Edmund Conti
Bananagrams 15, Edmund Conti
Word Ways
Bananagrams--anagrams to drive you bananas--consist of rhymed couplets, each one containing a pair of anagrams to be solved. One of the rhyming words will always be an anagram, and the couplet itself will offer clues to help solve the anagram. I am indebted to Rex Gooch for supplying suitable anagrams in his "Dual Perms" article in the August issue. Answers can be found in Answers and Solutions at the end of this issue.
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 34 Issue 4, Jeremiah Farrell
Front Cover And Publication Information, Volume 34 Issue 4, Jeremiah Farrell
Word Ways
Front cover and publication information for this issue.